Sinner's "copperhead" 18650 host review!

[offroadfreak8582]

Hey guys :san:

Today i built an new laser! I got the host from our famous sinner! :san:

I was thinking of doing a nice 3W+ 445 in this host since it has such a nice big copper heatsink!

So i was starting the build with the pill. Unfortunately the pill was way too small to fit an IDRV3 buck driver. ( I was planning on using two 16340's or 18350's)

SO i had to improvise. In a normal situation you would be pressing a contact board in the pill. But since the IDRV was sticking out i epoxied a thick plastic ring ontop of the pill.

Here you can see the driver. I thermally glued the driver ontop a copper bar. And thermally glued the entire thing to the pill again (sorry for the out of focus pic )

Then ontop of that i epoxied the 17mm contact board with a spring soldered onto it. (Lucky i have them laying around) Only with the spring the room in the body was going to be small enough for the two cells. This is a tailcap negative build.

When all dried i could screw in the enire pill. All was working great and it felt sturdy as a house!

2.33A for the win like allways :tinfoil:

Then is pressed the diode in a module and soldered it onto the lead's. "Don't forget to short the leads before connecting it to the diode people :wave:"

Since there was no screw in the heatsink to hold onto the diode, thermall glue was a must. But there was a small problem.

The module with the diode did not go through the heatsink! So i had to grab ye old drill and make it the tinyest bit wider.

After a quick polish i could finally glue in the diode.

I fired her up and it was alive :san: Here are some pics of the finished end product. (This time with focus :tinfoil: ) Focus to infinity is standard on my builds

All in all i think this is a great host. The head is very heavy and solid. The new tailclicky is a HUGE improvement! Last time i had to install a judco 10A myself which was quite a hassle!!

Things to improve would be the pill. Maybe a bit bigger? There is plenty of room left for that 18650!

Here is the output:

Solid as a house

I like building these custom hosts. They are a challenge because you almost allways have to do something to them to make them exactly as you want them.

Thumbs up to sinner for making this possible for all of us!

Thanks for looking!

:beer:

EDIT:

Here is a video:

 

[BowtieGuy]

Great build in another super ***y sinner host. Damn, I love all that copper!
Nice improvising on the pill, you got to do what it takes to make those photons flow!

P.S. - Don't let your better half see what you used the tulips for!

+1 Nice work.

 

[offroadfreak8582]

Thanks a lot :beer:

I am adding a video to the OP now :beer:

 

[jimdt7]

Very nice and detailed build log! :gj:
Enjoy it! +1 :beer:

Jim

 

[Chris190577]

I love all that copper in this Host!!!

 

[sinner]

Great work offroad, I like the host very much it's the star of my 3W collection.

Also, The driver can also be mounted on the top of the pill, there's a 19mm space to lay it on flat and the pill is threaded all the way so it's height can be adjusted to use 2x18350's or a 18650 with solid contact (no spring necessary in that case)

 

[offroadfreak8582]

Great work offroad, I like the host very much it's the star of my 3W collection.

Also, The driver can also be mounted on the top of the pill, there's a 19mm space to lay it on flat and the pill is threaded all the way so it's height can be adjusted to use 2x18350's or a 18650 with solid contact (no spring necessary in that case)

Hey man! Thanks i actually tried to mount it ontop of the pill but the driver was a little to big for comfort. With the mssw a super sxb did fit very nice ontop. I never fully twisted it the pill but i think a spring is better with different batteries with ever so slightly size differences.

And yes i really like it. It is the smalles heatsink i have experienced to handle the heat this good. :beer:

Copper for the win!

Edit: i had a 1.8A boost driver that did fit very nice into the pill. But i opted to go with the full 2.33A

 

[Jmillerdoc]

This is a fantastic host. I just finished mine last night. I used the same diode running at 2.45a with an X-drive purchased from DTR. I used a penny with the face sanded down and the edges bent up just enough to slide down the pill. On top of the penny I added some thermal epoxy mixed with atomized elemental copper (eBay for $5 an oz) to the top of my bent penny for added mass and contact with the pill. It works like a charm. I am quite surprised how quickly the copper top heat sink gets warm. After about 60s of run time it is much warmer to touch than I expected. I have a similarly powered 9mm in an aluminum sink about the same weight (larger in size but almost identical in mass) that barely gets warm at all after 60s. It may be the superior condition with the press fit or the fact that the same energy is being conducted to a smaller sink with the same mass causing the energy density to be higher and thus more perceptible to touch? Not exactly sure but I tried this side by side on two occasions now and it is clear that the copper sink feels much warmer to touch than the aluminum one. Anyone want to weigh in on this? I think it's the whole energy density to surface area effect causing this but I'd like more input on this. Anyways, great job. Looks fantastic! Just like mine!

 

[gismo]

Copperhead family grows bigger and bigger every day. You've voted for some power-sticking guts for this build, Robin, impressive and worth-a-while-watching work you've done on this one. Congrats on this blue laser sting:beer:.

One more thing: gotta love the flower decor.